Amazon Inks PBS Distribution Deal

Downton's still there, and now you can watch Nova and Caillou, too.

On Wednesday, Amazon.com(NASDAQ:AMZN) announced that it has expanded its multi-year agreement whereby it licenses PBS content for distribution to Amazon Prime members for instant streaming. From here on out, Prime members will be able to stream past seasons of NOVA and Masterpiece Theater. Downton Abbey is available exclusively on the service for its third season, and all seasons of the serial will become available on Amazon beginning later this year.

Perhaps most important for Amazon -- and for archrival Netflix(NASDAQ:NFLX) as well -- is that with this deal, Amazon says Prime members can stream PBS KIDS shows such as Caillou, Arthur, Daniels Tiger's Neighborhood, Dinosaur Train, and Wild Kratts.

In conjunction with Amazon's announcement earlier this month, that it has secured rights from Viacom(NASDAQ:VIAB) to stream thousands of episodes of kid-content from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., this week's PBS move locks up a lot of content for Amazon. By grouping most of the most popular kids' content in one location, on one service, it promises to widen the divide between what subscribers can get for their kids on Amazon, and what Netflix still offers.

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